The Historic Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, GA

What is it about cemeteries?!

Here's the short version, as shone on Facebook shortly after we were there.

And now, the longer version....

Where was I all those 25 years when I lived in Atlanta?

The thing is, it's been there since 1850...the Oakland Cemetery.

And if you look carefully, you can see the  Atlanta skyline in the background.

Daughter Amy was the one who thought up this day trip for our free Saturday, 17 October.

 And the five us went together:  Amy, Dennis, Astrid, Nicholas and moi.

You could safely say we were all gobsmacked...

...even down to the tiniest details, inside and out.

Do you think "they" minded us peering into their final resting places?

Because famous Atlanta people are interred there, we were on a mission, with a map, to find them:

Margaret Mitchell Marsh (author of Gone With the Wind)

Bobby Jones, Jr (the "greatest amateur golfer ever," from the 1920s)

Maynard Jackson, Jr. (the first African-American mayor of Atlanta, serving 3 terms)

Some areas of the cemetery were dedicated to particular groups of people:

The African-American Grounds

The Old Jewish Burial Grounds

The Confederate Memorial Grounds

It wasn't hard to tell which were which.

But it was the individual gravestones that struck all of us, I think.

Like this one, for instance, of such a wee child.

And this one from someone's ingenious imagination.

Tombstones everywhere, in remembrance of loved ones.

Stairways to heaven, perhaps?

With plenty to remind us of ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

At some point in the middle, we walked across the street to the Six Feet Under Pub & Fish House,

across from the cemetery and overlooking it.  Who comes up with such a name for a restaurant!

You wouldn't have to ask me twice to go back to both places again one day/year.

Both were totally worth the time and effort.

Thank you, Amy, Dennis and Nicholas!